Smart city refers to the urban development vision of the government to modernise mid-sized cities in India.ET Bureau | Updated: February 05, 2017, 23:48 IST

IT services major Wipro Ltd Chairman, Azim Premji on Saturday said smart city projects, for now, are more talk than action and its implementation has been shallow.

Speaking at the Wipro earthian awards 2016, Premji said, “Smart city projects today is more talk than action. It has got a lot of traction from the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi). But, its implementation has been very shallow”.

Smart city refers to the urban development vision of the government to modernise mid-sized cities in India. The project initiated in June 2015, aims to provide advanced infrastructure and information communication technology solutions for 109 cities in India.

The India business tycoon sought a well-rounded approach to smart cities for the project to truly kick-off. “The key priority of the government today is to get it moving… There is very little action on the ground,” he said.

Answering a student’s question on Wipro’s contribution to smart city projects, Premji said Wipro has provided IT services and smart lighting solutions for smart city projects.

Speaking about sustainable energy, Premji said, “More green energy should be used instead of using coal-based energy,” adding, the use of green energy like hydro, does not come at the cost of the environment. Also, “sustainability is practice, not curriculum”. It is only through practice that we can improve the adoption of sustainable practices.

One of the winning teams from IIT- Rookie analysed their on-campus water leakage data from multiple places like hostels, lawns etc and created a model to overcome it.

Anurag Behar, CEO of Azim Premji foundation who was present along with Premji dedicated the earthian award 2016 to the late Anupam Mishra, an environmentalist and ardent advocate of conservation of traditional water structures.